![]() You will need to experiment to find one from your collection of power cords that works well with the Soul Note DAC. I replaced the black normal power cord and used a Kimber Powerkord PK10 which seemed to work well with the DAC. The DAC also needs a high quality power cord. Of course, there is the extra cost to consider. It does not stray much from its family traits, but a quick comparison with the resident Lamm preamp showed that once again a standalone preamp is still better than a DAC’s built-in preamp. I also used my pair of Oyaide XLR interconnects to connect to the Bryston 4B SST power amp to use the DAC as a preamp. There are no added flavours or warmth which makes the Soul Note DAC an excellent component for studio monitoring purposes. ![]() The headphone jack also has the family traits of neutrality and precision. It is quite detailed, opens up the soundstage remarkably well and is precise in its timbres. Though the DAC is small, the rear panel does not seem too crowded.īased purely on sonic attributes, the Soul Note DAC has a neutral palette which is a little on the cool side. There was no clicking issue when I played PCM files from 44.1 to 384. This happened when I played PCM files converted on-the-fly to DSD and also native DSD files. The clicking sound came from the DAC and from the speakers, I could hear ‘thump’ sounds. However, I was a bit irritated by the sound of clicking whenever the DAC locked in and out of the DSD signal. Also, when I played native DSD files at different sampling rates from Opus, the differences in sound quality between the DSD 2.8 and the DSD 5.6 files were quite apparent. ![]() This was especially so when I played a Charles Mingus track called Moanin‘ from Blues & Roots (24/192 from HD Tracks) which I converted on the fly to 2X DSD. ![]() The Soul Note DAC showed remarkably clearly the differences in sound quality between PCM and PCM-converted-to-DSD files. However, I was startled by how different PCM files sounded when they were converted on the fly by J River V21 to DSD 5.6 files compared with the native PCM files. If there is anything outstanding about the Soul Note DAC, it is its neutrality…and its precision. The SD300 DAC has a similar sound signature, but its bass output was not as strikingly outstanding.Ĭompared with other DACs that I have reviewed or heard, the SD300 DAC is not as detailed as the Bryston BDA-2, not as warm as the North Star Blue Diamond (which is actually a CD player-cum-DAC) and not as analogue-like as the Chord Hugo. Recently, I reviewed the Soul Note SA-710 Monitor Amplifier and found that it had a precise and detailed sound with a powerful bass that belied its tiny power output of 10 watts. This is to ensure that you will not get a loud blast of music if someone had accidentally turned the volume up when the DAC was turned off. The SD300 DAC is easy to operate and one good feature is that its output level is always at the default setting of 40 whenever it is switched on if the previous volume setting was above 40 if the previous volume was set at say, 33, it will still be 33 when the DAC is powered on. Its co-ax and optical inputs accept up to 24 bit 192kHz files while the USB input accepts PCM up to 32 bit 384 kHz and DSD up to 5.6 MHz. It is a smallish component but it offers a myriad features – it is a PCM (up to 384 kHz) and DSD (up to 5.6 MHz) DAC, a preamp and a headphone amp (recommended impedance: 16 ohm – 600 ohm). It is well made, feels solid and oozes quality. The Soul Note SD300 DAC Headphone Amp is another quality product from the Japanese firm. So you are assured that the guys in Soul Note know a trick or two about making hi-fi components. Soul Note has its roots in the great engineering departments of Marantz and Denon. The front panel of the DAC is neat and functional.
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